Protesters in Bengaluru condemn NewsClick raids as ‘attack on press freedom’

On Tuesday, the police raided over 30 locations, including houses of journalists associated with NewsClick such as Prabir Purkayastha, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Urmilesh, Bhasha Singh, Aunindyo Chakravarty and Bappa Sinha.

Aishwarya Ravikumar, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, drew parallels with the Emergency and arrests in the Bhima Koregaon case. “The action by the central government follows a pattern… It’s a pattern of the Modi-Shah regime to invoke draconian laws and put people behind bars. The arrests in this case (NewsClick) were made by fabricating evidence and without an FIR,” she said.

A lawyer representing the AILAJ, said that instead of realising the vision of a welfare state, the government was systematically curbing the fundamental rights of its people. (Express photo)

Vinay K S, of Bahutva Karnataka, said, “The raids and seizures of devices belonging to media personnel (without ensuring data integrity) has a chilling effect. The invocation of the UAPA on media is draconian and a massive overreach. An independent media is essential for democracy.”

Avani Chokshi, a lawyer representing the AILAJ, said that instead of realising the vision of a welfare state, the government was systematically curbing the fundamental rights of its people. She said similar raids had also taken place in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in which the electronic devices of a lawyer had been seized. “On behalf of all lawyers, I say that seizing the devices of lawyers threatens the privacy of our clients. What if one of them is a citizen speaking truth to power? How is it legal to target journalists and lawyers? This is extremely unconstitutional,” she said.

Tahir Hussain, from Welfare Party of India, emphasised the bleak state of governance in the country. “It is a ridiculous day today, when the prime minister is engaging in self-promotion on his YouTube channel instead of speaking about people’s issues. They should be addressing the issues of working people, but instead they are abusing their power and using Delhi Police to conduct such raids and arrests,” he said.

C G Manjula, a senior journalist, said that it was deeply concerning that journalists are targeted simply for doing their job. She said that independent media outlets and journalists who are speaking about important issues are made to be so vulnerable by the central government.

G Ramakrishna, Nagargere Ramesh, senior advocate B T Venkatesh and Aratrika De of the All-India Students Association also addressed the meeting.